Primary Research:

Cardiovascular and lung diseases are major causes of morbidity and mortality globally. My laboratory utilizes multi-disciplinary approaches to investigate how blood vessels initially form, are maintained and go awry in disease. We primarily focus on cells of the vascular wall, known as mural cells, which include smooth muscle cells and pericytes. In addition, we study the role of fibroblasts in lung development and fibrotic disease. Furthermore, we investigate how these cell types interface with other cell types, including endothelial and inflammatory cells. Our research spans from mouse models to human samples to cultured cells. We aim to gain critical insights into the pathogenesis of diverse cardiovascular and pulmonary pathologies and leverage these insights into novel therapeutics that will help ameliorate human disease.

Laboratory web site URL:

https://dangreiflab.com

Recent Presentations:

Upcoming presentations:
1) 2026 - “Pulmonary vascular dynamics: rise and fall of SMC clones”, Cardiovascular Research Center Seminar Series, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA,
2) 2026 - “TBD”, Annual Meeting of NAVBO and Microcirculatory Society, Monterey, CA

Collaborative Relationships:

Harvard (Tim Hla), Stanford (Tushar Desai, Robert Riemer, Claudia Algaze), Tufts (Volkhard Lindner), UCSD (Michael Corley), Washington University (Robert Mecham), Yale (Carlos Fernandez-Hernando, Erica Herzog, Megan King, Yuval Kluger, Kathleen Martin, Rolando Garcia Milian, Mark Saltzman, George Tellides), Industry (Amgen, Prestige Biopharma), University of Pittsburgh (Zsolt Urban), Virginia Commonwealth University (Sarah Spiegel)

Laboratory Motto:

"I'll give you some advice: don't take too much advice"